Will South Yemen secessionists succeed in Yemen?

My co-commentary in @trtworld's @The_Newsmakers yesterday: Will South Yemen secessionists succeed in Yemen?

Yemeni woman activist refuses to give up following death threats

A demonstration in Aden demanding "Justice for the prisoners and justice for the innocent"
with pictures of those detained held up (Image courtesy of Huda al-Sarari)

*Human rights lawyer Huda al-Sarari says she fears for her life after denouncing torture in secret prisons in Aden.

Huda al-Sarari was called a liar, a mercenary and even a “whore” on social media, during a vicious online campaign against the Yemeni human rights lawyer. Her ordeal began in June after she spoke out against torture in secret prisons allegedly run by the United Arab Emirates in Aden.

Sarari, who documented the abuses during an investigation and spoke about it to the media, said that her phone was stolen from her home, her car was attacked and she received death threats following the campaign. “I was afraid to leave my house or speak to media for more than a month,” Sarari told Middle East Eye. “But now, I want the word out, at least, about the dreadful experience [human rights activists have to] bear."

The defamation campaign against Sarari started in June on social media, after Human Rights Watch and the Associated Press published two separate investigations accusing the UAE of running secret prisons in Yemen, where many people were reportedly tortured and abused. She is one of the rights lawyers who documented the testimonies of torture victims held in the secret prisons and delivered them to HRW. She also gave interviews regarding her findings on several prominent media outlets after the reports came out.

HRW documented the cases of 49 people, including four children, who were arbitrarily detained or forcibly disappeared in the Aden and Hadramawt governates over the last year. At least 38 appear to have been arrested or detained by UAE-backed security forces. Multiple sources, including Yemeni government officials, have reported the existence of a number of informal detention centers and prisons in Aden and Hadramawt, including at least two run by the UAE and others run by UAE-backed Yemeni security forces.

The UAE Foreign Ministry denied running any secret prisons in Yemen and called the accusations "an attempt to sully the reputation of the alliance that had intervened to save the Yemeni people". The UAE is a key member of the Saudi-led and US-backed military campaign to support Yemen’s toppled government against Shia Houthi rebels, which was launched in March 2015. 

A protest in Aden demanding rights for prisoners (courtesy of Huda al-Sarari)

According to a draft United Nations report seen by Reuters on Thursday, the Saudi-led military coalition was responsible for an "unacceptably high" 51 percent of child deaths and injuries in Yemen last year. In January, the UN said that since the Saudi-led coalition intervened in 2015, the death toll has risen to at least 10,000 civilians.

One of the posts attacking Sarari stated that “the so-called Huda al-Sarari works in disguise with human rights groups, while she actually reports to political and security foreign parties, jeopardising [the] South’s interests and its goal for liberation." The Emergency Committee for Civil Society Organisations in Aden condemned the acts of defamation against Sarari and her family in a statement which spread on social media following the smear campaign. “The objective of this [campaign] is to reduce any efforts to defend human rights,” the statement said.

One day after the online attacks started on 23 June, Sarari and her family said they began to receive death threats. Sarari said that her phone was stolen from inside her home in Aden. Nothing else was taken from her house. The same day, her car windows were smashed. She added that her internet connection at home was deliberately cut off by an unknown person. Shortly after that, an acquaintance paid her a visit at her office to deliver her a "message" telling her that she should "be careful of your coming steps, otherwise you will risk your life", according to Sarari.




Family targeted

Sarari graduated in Sharia and Law from Aden University in 2011. She also holds a master's degree in Women's Studies and Development from the Women's Centre at Aden University.

She has been working in human rights activism for almost 10 years, gaining experience at numerous local organisations such as the Yemeni Women's Union, the Adala Foundation for Rights and Freedoms and the National Committee to Investigate Allegations of Human Rights Violations. She has also volunteered to work with Amnesty International and HRW.

With this experience, Sarari is accustomed to criticism. But this latest attack was something she has never experienced before. Sarari was disturbed by the posts, which she said were very personal and attacked her husband and children while identifying where they lived and even the car she drove. Her family was terrified when the social media campaign gained momentum. Huda’s mother, who preferred not to disclose her name, told MEE that, “if Huda is not fearful for her life, she must be fearful for the safety of her children," she said. "And because Huda is a woman, they go after her honour and this is unacceptable in our society.”


Sarari agrees that the worst part of the campaign launched against her is the libel and slander, which could bring shame to her whole family in the conservative society of Yemen. “As you may know, Yemen is a conservative society, in which women’s honour is perceived as sacred,” Sarari said. “Calling me degrading words like a whore has a stronger negative impact on me than it does if it were directed against a male activist.”

But others have also come to her defence. One Facebook post stated: "She said a word of truth against injustice, while you cheer for injustice, you who defame her honour should get whipped as a punishment according to our Sharia - that’s if there is any sharia in our land."

Human rights lawyer Huda al-Sarari working at the headquarters of the Yemeni Women's
Union in Aden (Photo courtesy of Huda al-Sarari)

"Quit your activism"

According to the HRW report, the court system in Aden is largely not functioning because of the war. Although the prosecutor’s office continues to issue release orders for people, these orders are ignored by security forces controlling the area. As a result, Sarari has found it futile to report threats against her to the prosecution and seek protection. "There is no chance to report threats today to the attorney general like we used to before, as it has been out of commission, impacted by the general instability," she said.

Aden is under the control of the Security Belt, a southern force taking part in the war. According to the HRW report issued in June, the "Security Belt" forces, are backed by the UAE. They have been accused of many abuses including excessive force during arrests and raids, detaining children, causing forcible disappearances and detaining family members of wanted suspects to pressure them to “voluntarily” turn themselves in, according to HRW. Sarari avoided approaching the "Security Belt" forces, given their links to the UAE. Instead, she contacted influential Yemeni political leaders.

"They couldn’t promise me much protection,” Sarari laughs and continues: “One [political leader] literally told me, 'how about you quit your activism and avoid facing risks?'”  For now, Sarari is taking basic safety measures such as limiting her movement, especially at night.

Kristine Beckerle, Yemen and UAE researcher at HRW told MEE: “Female activists like Huda al-Sarari are fighting every day for more rights protections, yet instead of addressing the important issues these [activists] are rising, many instead have faced smear campaigns, death threats, or a myriad of other challenges." "This is not only incredibly unfair to, and often very dangerous for, the women and men who have dedicated their lives to pushing for a more justice-oriented Yemen, but damaging to any future hope for a stable, rights-respecting state," she added.


According to local reports, there have been other instances where female activists have been subjected to similar online campaigns, like Radhya al-Mutawakel, who heads Mwatana, a human rights group based in Sanaa. In March, she was one of the speakers who addressed human rights violations in Yemen at the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington. She said that all parties in Yemen were committing human rights violations including the Houthi rebel group and the Saudi-led coalition.

The Yemeni embassy in Washington sent a letter trying to discourage congressional aides from attending the briefing in Washington. The embassy accused local speakers, including al-Mutawakel, of having a political “agenda” tied to Houthi rebels fighting against the government of President Abdu Rabbuh Mansour Hadi. The claim was denied by the event's organisers. Sarari said it was up to the main parties in the war, including the Yemeni government and the UAE, to restrain the armed groups and protect rights workers, especially women.

“I wish I had better advice for women activists in terms of how to protect themselves or could give clear answers on what human rights organisations could do to protect them," said Beckerle , "but, it really comes down to the authorities - to the Yemeni government and other actors like the UAE exercising influence over armed groups and fighting forces in Aden to be doing far more to ensure that there is space for men and women to speak out, advocate and do the work crucial to Yemen’s future."


'They depend on me'
Even though Sarari admits to being scared, she is determined to continue her work and has never considered quitting. Although it has been a difficult time for them, her family and husband offer their unconditional support and simply ask that she is careful. Part of Sarari’s many commitments are her assignments within the legal team of the Yemeni Women's Union. Its work includes offering legal protection for women in personal status cases and protecting the rights of female prisoners.

“Working with these women is like a driving force for me,” Sarari concluded. “Many abused women’s cases depend on me, so I have to ignore the threats and get up again and continue working.”

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*My latest article published at Middle East Eye, on 21st of August.

The Gulf will control Yemen forever if the south secedes now

*Recent dramatic events in southern Yemen mirror the vicious circle in which the country finds itself, two years into a war that has killed at least 10,000 – and reflect a struggle between President Abd Rabbuh Mansour Hadi and his Emirati and Saudi backers.

In late April, after major tensions with the Emirati who have been backing him, Hadi dismissed two southern secessionists - Aidarus al-Zubaidi, the governor of Aden, and cabinet minister Hani bin Braik. In response, tens of thousands of people protested in Aden in early May and the southern seccessionist movement suddenly saw an opening for the prospect for independence in the middle of war.

On 11 May, Zubaidi announced that he and other officials were forming an autonomous body – the Southern Political Council – to manage Yemen’s southern provinces and represent the south domestically and internationally. Southerners have been campaigning for independence for years. Their grievances stem from the 1990s when North and South Yemen unified and then fought one another in a civil war in 1994.

After the war, the southerners accused the unified Yemeni government, based in the northern city of Sanaa, of corruption, election fraud and seizing their oil and gas-rich land. In 2007, they formally organised into the Southern Movement – known as Hirak - to secede. But the establishment of the new council and even the protests that have followed are unlikely to bring the secession which many southerners have long envisioned. Trying to secede right now is like trying to build a house in a hurricane.




Losing face

The southerners’ move is especially ill-timed given how weak their movement has grown and how its political context has changed since its founding. Following Yemen’s 2011 uprising, there has been a violent crackdown against Hirak leaders, including several assassinations which have further undermined the movement’s political wing.

The remaining Hirak leaders now either live outside the country, with many residing in Gulf countries, the UK and the US, and/or are affiliated with the Emirates. Given Hadi’s spat with Bin Zayed and Zubaidi’s announcement, it’s also clear that the movement is heavily influenced today by what the Saudis and the Emirates want. As ousted Yemeni president Ali Abdullah Saleh said earlier this month, “Events in Aden are only a play and the decision is in the hands of Saudi King Salman bin Abdulaziz al-Saud."

But do Gulf countries want this influence? Earlier this month, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) issued a statement opposing the formation of the Southern Political Council in Aden because secession is exactly what they do not want.

For the south to achieve statehood within a failing state would only make Gulf countries lose face. The GCC would never allow that to happen. The GCC went to war in Yemen to restore what it began after Yemen’s 2011 uprising with its political plan, known as "the GCC initiative" - which firmly rejected the division of Yemen - and it won’t cease its engagement in Yemen until its plan is achieved. With the changing dynamics of the war, a southern secession for the Hirak movement would mean only a split from the GCC initiative, not from a state, because, technically, the north no longer has a functioning government and the south has a remote government, operating out of Riyadh. 

The decisive factor
As a Yemeni seeing my country descend into a failed state, I believe that, if there is any concept of Yemen as a state, then it’s a state controlled by the GCC. So if the south plans to split, it should rethink who is actually in control of Yemen’s sovereignty today. The Yemen war has drastically changed the rules of the game. Hirak’s rivalry has changed its face. Southerners used to face enforced control by the north, but now it’s control by their neighbours.

Some believe that because the international community doesn’t support the Hirak, it is doomed to fail, but I disagree. In fact, the fate of Hirak depends on the approval or disapproval by the GCC. History has taught us Yemenis that Yemen is the backyard of Gulf countries and it will always be under their control. Southern activists whom I recently spoke with on the condition of their anonymity affirmed their belief that secession would be realised, especially with the support of neighbouring countries.

One secessionist activist told me, “Despite all the flaws, the formation of the council is one step towards the right direction. We are working on convincing the Saudis and the Emirates, especially that UAE has always been more understanding to our case.” Before the war and even before the 2011 uprising, southern grievances were clearly identifiable and unique. Today, the grievances are much broader and sit in an entirely different context: a country torn by war, with thousands killed and injured, with crippled institutions and ravaged by a catastrophic humanitarian crisis.

As much as secessionists desire statehood, how the war proceeds and whether their breakaway would ever actually happen is entirely up to the regional states now involved.

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*This article was first published in MiddleEastEye.com on the 22nd of May, 2017.
*Photography courtesy: Ahmed Shihab Al-Qadi, in Aden, taken 21st of May, 2017.